Recycled milk cartons transformed into building material

MILKLAB has partnered with saveBOARD to transform recycled waste including long-life milk cartons into low-carbon building materials to be used as the walls of MILKLAB Lane at the 2024 Melbourne International Coffee Expo held on 12–14 May.

The MILKLAB Lane stand will be made with sustainable materials including saveBOARD, a low-carbon building material made from hard-to-recycle liquid paper board used in long-life milk and juice cartons.

Both companies worked closely to create the walls of MILKLAB Lane by integrating milk carton packaging waste into the board products. The boards have no additives such as glues, chemicals and adhesives. The plastic in the packaging acts as the glue, and colour is created from the original consumer packaging.

Each board saves 500 used beverage cartons from landfill. Each saveBOARD plant is capable of recycling 4 million kilograms of soft plastics and fibre every year at its facilities at Warragamba in Western Sydney and Hamilton in New Zealand.

Image credit: MILKLAB.